she's the president of liberia, ellen johnson serley. i was sitting in liberia. i said to her, james madison, by design, said this is to be an ugly, messy, difficult process. i'll never forget how she looked at me and said, david, you've forgotten one thing. yes, it is an ugly, messy, difficult process but you have to add the fact that it works. and as difficult as it has been to get to this point, we need to realize that it's an ugly, messy, difficult process, this is a very small step, it's a first step in our quest for tax reform and entitlement reform which will get us back onto a path toward economic growth and the kind of prosperity that we want and that the american people deserve and it will create a greater degree of certainty, we all know that uncertainty is the enemy of prosperity and so making permanent these tax cuts for 99% of the american people is a very important step in our quest to ep sure that there is that degree of -- to ensure that there is a degree of certainty. mr. speaker, i will say again that i do associate myself with some of the thin